


sand, river and sun

by Celestos (Seruspica)



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-24 06:03:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6143869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seruspica/pseuds/Celestos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlet based on a request. Kind of AU-ish, just wanted something to fit the 'crying' prompt. Atem x Mana.</p>
            </blockquote>





	sand, river and sun

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by aquaburst07 on tumblr. Originally posted on Fanfiction as part of the 'Trinkets, Treasures and Other Miscellanies' collection.

She last saw him three sunrises past. There has been no twist of dark in the air, no faint smell of smoke, and her heart has been devoid of that small spark of chaos that has made her the girl that she is.

She's alone without the mentor that made her, and a palace's worth of guards and safe-keepers aren't enough to replace him. She's thrown off their hands and pushed through their hold. She won't be confined; even if there is no hope screaming, she can't help but let it all out.

Bitter, the water still falls.

Whatever she had, that thing she called 'strength'; it isn't there now. She's like a child before the eyes of the Pharaoh, and it makes her ashamed. She knows, she has to stand up and stay strong, and pull herself together. She has to take back her staff and hold it close, and to never let go. She has to stand her ground, but she can't.

She could have helped, but she's lost him, and it's hopeless. She chokes through her tears.

"I know it. He's gone, and he's not coming back."

Her voice skips and breaks, like the river running over a stone. To him, she has always been the cool of the Nile; the blood that runs through his heart and the smile that refreshes him, even if that look is as small and as brief as a splash.

Her tears are saltwater. He wants to dry her eyes, but for once, he doesn't know if he can.

It hurts him, more than a wound on his flesh. Even with the sting of the pain, he doesn't know what to say. He has been raised to reign a thousand ways, to judge men as a God on Earth, to sentence the guilty. He has been told that his voice must be harsh, that he must be strength incarnate. His eyes must be sharp and his arms must be spears. His brilliance must be that of the sun.

He wants to put down the weapons.

His heart burns with pain; pain for Mana, pain for the apprentice and the child that she was, and for the woman and the magician she'll be. He knows she can make it alive, and she has the strength to stand in her legs. She has the light in her eyes to look forth at the sun and shine with that same brightness, and to illuminate the whole world in its future. She is the river, and like a silvery rush, she will run.

Mahad will be like the sand. He is something that neither can hold; something that surrounds. Gold slips though the hands and falls, but remains on the ground. His memory is a world of small grains that no man can ever truly comprehend.

_If he is the sand, and she is the river, and I am the sun, then some day, she will stand in the desert, and I will bring her the warmth._


End file.
